1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus which records an image on a recording medium by ejecting liquid droplets onto the recording medium so as to form the image.
2. Description of Related Art
As an inkjet printer which records an image on a recording sheet as a recording medium by ejecting droplets of ink onto the recording sheet, there is known a printer having a feeding mechanism including an endless feeder belt wound around a plurality of rollers, and an inkjet head having a plurality of nozzles from which ink droplets are rejected onto a recording sheet placed on an outer circumferential surface of the feeder belt. In such an inkjet printer, it is known to inspect whether ink droplet ejection from the nozzles is normally performed, by ejecting ink droplets from the nozzles so as to print a test pattern on a part of the feeder belt, and then reading the test pattern by means of a line sensor that is disposed downstream of the inkjet head with respect to a sheet feeding direction which is a direction in which the recording sheet is fed. For example, such a technique is disclosed in JP-A-2005-342899.
On the other hand, in order to know the position of a recording sheet being fed, some inkjet printers have a sheet sensor for detecting the recording sheet reaching a predetermined position that is located upstream of an inkjet head with respect to a sheet feeding direction.
In the above-described technique of nozzle inspection, it is significant to have a surface of a portion of the feeder belt surface-treated in order to facilitate removal of the test pattern. However, where such a surface treatment is implemented in the inkjet printer having the sheet sensor described above, the following problem may arise. When the surface-treated part reaches the predetermined position, the sheet sensor detects the surface-treated part and erroneously outputs a detection signal indicative of detection of a recording sheet. The erroneous detection signal leads to recording of an image on the surface-treated part of the feeder belt, although the image should be recorded on a recording sheet.